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Freemen dominate in 5-0 victory over NCU

The Providence Freemen men’s soccer squad hoped to leave their regional tournament with a dominant performance to lead them into the NCCAA Division II National Tournament. After a 5-0 victory in a championship game performance that saw Providence outshoot NCU 24 to 2, dominate possession, and clear their bench the Freemen felt they achieved that goal and more.

The Freemen came out strong, started their scoring early, and continued their dominant offensive play throughout. Sophomore Andry Giesbrecht scored in the 10th minute as he converted a Yohannes Asrat corner by heading the ball past the NCU keeper. Providence then converted a beautiful string of passes in the 28th minute as Miguel Fictoria moved the ball down the right side of the field and fed Mario Giesbrecht a ball that he crossed first touch into the box to his brother Andry. “The South American Sensation” then finished his second of the game to put Providence up 2-0.

“Super” Mario then opened the second half by scoring on a run he started from half as he muscled his way down the left side and finished a hard shot in the 5th minute. Thomas Kaethler then scored Providence’s fourth goal of the game in the 12th minute as he won a bouncing ball in the penalty area and then buried it into the bottom left corner. The Freemen then started clearing their bench but remained able to stay in control of the game. However, they remained scoreless until the 38th minute when Andry Giesbrecht completed his hat-trick as he received a long ball from Derek Loeppky and put away the breakaway opportunity to finish the scoring at 5-0 in Providence’s favour. With the win, the Freemen earned the regional championship banner and a berth in the national tournament.

Freemen Head Coach Martin Ward was impressed with the attractive soccer that his team played and feels confident that his team is where they need to be as they prepare for the NCCAA Division II National Tournament.

“I was delighted with the way the team played,” Coach Ward said. “The defense was strong and distributed the ball intelligently, and the midfield and forwards combined well to create many scoring opportunities. I thought NCU fought hard all game and pushed us to play our best and we rose to that challenge and scored goals at the right times to maintain momentum and control the game.”

Regional awards were also handed out and four Providence players earned recognition as freshmen Mario Giesbrecht and Joel Janke, and junior Yohannes Asrat were named to the All-Region Team. Senior captain Tory Walker was awarded the Region MVP for outstanding play and leadership in NCCAA competition.